Subliminal Messages in Advertising

Ever wondered why companies spend millions of dollars in advertising campaigns? Why are products launched in such a grandeur style? Well, you are correct. The main reason for doing so, is to persuade and influence our buying habits, that is, they affect our views and almost magically, even without us being aware of it, advertisements indirectly or directly persuade us to buy products. And we do get carried away by advertisements. Don't we? While advertising and marketing has progressed by leaps and bounds, the trend of subliminal messages in advertising too has become a popular tool to garner maximum profits.

What are Subliminal Messages?

The father of psychology, Sigmund Freud stated the unconscious mind to be "primal, hedonistic, and impulsive". And this definition of unconscious mind is so aptly understood when we analyze advertisements in today's era or rather various advertisements in history that indirectly contain subliminal messages. The word subliminal means "below the threshold of consciousness." Put simply, our minds have conscious and unconscious parts. Every day, hundreds of advertisements bombard thousands of information on our minds.

While the aware or conscious part of our minds stores some information, rest other is passed without being processed to the unconscious part of the brain. Now this unconscious part of our mind is a pool of innumerable nonessential thoughts just existing in the realm of our unconscious mind. Although, these thoughts are non-essential, they, in their very essence influence our thoughts, actions and habits. In advertisements, hidden subliminal advertising messages are used to arouse, excite, trigger and appeal the unconscious parts of our brain. That inevitably influences our psychology and hence buying habits. When suggestions make an entry into the subconscious mind, they are stored there for future reference and whenever something related to that information comes in front of the eyes, the consumer is reminded of that particular product or item. This automatically, almost without us being aware of it, influences our purchasing habits.

History of Subliminal Messages in Advertising

The use of subliminal messages dates back to the year 1957, when James Vicary, a market researcher, came up with the concept of subliminal messaging in advertising. In a movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Vicary conducted an experiment in which he had the movie flash, "Drink Coca Cola" and "Eat Popcorn", just for few milliseconds repeated for every five minutes. Obviously, people watching the movie could not perceive the subliminal messages as it was for a very short time to get noticed. However, the results in the later months were astonishing, the sales of Coca Cola shot up by 18% and that of popcorn by 58%. There was no strong official evidences about effectiveness of subliminal messaging in advertising given by Vicary, so there is a general controversy that the story was fabricated. Nevertheless, this experiment led to a detailed study and analysis of subliminal messaging in advertising by advertising agencies. Later in the coming years, bands were imposed on subliminal messages however, that trend subsided very soon because any advertisement containing such subtle messages can be interpreted in two ways. This weakened the argument that such messages are "contrary to the societal structure and values". Hence, since then, they have been an integral part of every high budget advertising campaign. The messages in ads that were banned in various cases, were done so because they tended towards obscenity or had very obvious double meanings.

It is fact that subliminal messages are used extensively in media and they are a part of today's consumerism based society. Whether or not, subliminal messages in advertising are understood by a majority of the population, they cast an impression on the subconscious minds and that too, very effectively. Issues about advertising ethics and the message such advertisements send to the society, have been an ongoing debate for years. And since we all agree to disagree, this debate continues. So, next time you watch an advertisement, give yourself a thought and check out how easily you are able to relate to things shown in the advertisement!